


Rewind

by rainbow_kitten_5



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angry TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Eventual Happy Ending, Evil Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Flashbacks, Gen, Memories, Mentioned Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Toby Smith | Tubbo, Mentioned Wilbur Soot, Positive Outlook, l'manberg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28888419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbow_kitten_5/pseuds/rainbow_kitten_5
Summary: History doesn't repeat itself, but it often does rhyme. Tommy learns this too late as he stands over an exploded L'manberg feeling like his life in stuck on the rewind button.
Kudos: 26





	Rewind

Rewind. The debris flies through the air. 

Rewind. Explosions crack the dry ground.

Rewind. Fire spreads across the dry grass.

Rewind. Screams of betrayal are shouted across the destruction. 

Rewind. A smile.

Tommy stands on the criss-cross wires above L’manberg and stares down into the wreckage below him. It’s the same every time! They finally get L’manberg back just for it to be ripped from their grasp. How did this happen again? Tommy rubs his eyes expecting them to be wet tears. He knows they aren’t. It’s happened too many times before. It’s all gone. His last chance at hope. The only remaining proof of Wilbur. The real Wilbur.

Tommy still remembers what it first felt like to be in that caravan with Wilbur. The bottles of strange liquids bubbling over as Wilbur ranted about his great plans for the world. How he was going to fill the entire caravan with riches, how his plan would make them the most powerful people in the nation. At that time Tommy’s eyes were wide with wonder as he listened as patiently as he could. He wanted to be just like Wilbur. He wanted to become him. 

Tommy remembers standing at the rectangle table in the centre of the caravan. Tubbo by his side and his revolutionary outfit itching at his skin. Wilbur stands at the head of the table, his eyes sharp and burning with a forest fire of passion. Wilbur spoke of independence. He spoke of freedom. This was no longer just them, this was a nation, a home. They were going to change things. They were going to speak up and stand strong until that looming smile no longer controls them.

Tommy remembers when he first lost that home. He remembers as the walls around his home fell from the hidden explosives. He can still hear the smile’s laughter as his fellow men screamed and Wilbur shouted above the chaos trying to give them directions. 

But in the end, they rebuilt. They survived. They created a place of freedom and choice. And their home decided to abandon them. The people voted them out of office. Tommy remembers jumping in pure joy when he thought that he and Wilbur had won. He was going to be vice-president of a free nation he helped protect. Wilbur tried desperately to stop him. Tommy caught one glance of the broken expression on the man that had practically raised him and quieted in a moment. Wilbur had turned back to the podium as he explained the coalition government that had been formed between SWAG2020 and SCHLATT2020. Tommy still has nightmares about getting thrown off of that stage as Schlatt approached the podium. They woke up from their dreams of freedom as Schlatt declared himself emperor and drove Tommy and Wilbur out of their home with arrows flying through the air.

Tommy tastes moist air in his mouth every day from the ravine he and Wilbur had taken shelter in. He has the most vivid memories from that time. Tommy can hardly sleep anymore as Wilbur’s voice flows through his head. Somedays Tommy can’t tell if he’s back there again or not. Somedays Tommy is standing in the moonlight as he walks through the shadows of the forest. As Wilbur asks the question that started everything.

‘’Tommy, are we the bad guys?’’ Other nights the words that fall from Wilbur’s mouth darker and Tommy flinches as the older man leans close to him and says, ‘’Tommy let’s be the bad guys.’’. It doesn’t matter in the end which phrase haunts his nightmares and flashbacks. It doesn’t matter if Tommy watches his hero lose his fight to his depression and paranoia after being beaten down by betrayal and trauma, or if Tommy watches a villain laugh maniacally while blood drags across Tommy’s face as the teen loses a fight to someone else that was supposed to be one of their closest allies in the pit. It doesn’t matter because it ends the same way every time, L’manberg falling to the ground as Wilbur hits a button that sets off the explosives. Tommy still sees the outline of the sword sticking through Wilbur’s back when he closes his eyes.

But in the end, they rebuilt. They survived. They created a place of freedom and choice. Rewind. Rewind. His time, it was going to be fine! Tommy was wrong. The rain fell into his eyes as Tubbo, his best friend banished him from his home. As L’manberg grew and flourished without him, Tommy stood in the sand as his legs started to fall from beneath him. His limbs grew thin and his eyes lost their colour. The smile stood beside him pretending to empathize with his pain as if the smile wasn’t the one that caused it. Tommy’s throat grew dry and his head became fuzzy while the puppet strings thrashed him around carelessly. Falling started to become so appealing. The rush of wind would be intoxicating before all of his pain dissolved with his body.

Tommy never did fall. Instead, he fought. He fought like the old Wilbur. Rewind. He couldn’t be Wilbur though, he doesn’t want to become the fallen angel with wings of destruction. Tommy fought against the smile and fled into the cold. He froze out his fears and starved his lust for death. He rebuilt himself. He survived. He locked hands in a promise with the man he believed has changed. He made a new home. Wilbur still haunted his mind and the smile still hunted for his life but he had a home. It didn’t last long. The agreement of trust crumbled as Tommy realized he was still Wilbur. He became Wilbur through soft words and a roof over his head. Maybe he can never escape Wilbur. He closed his wings of destruction and threw himself into the arms of Tubbo as both friends whispered millions of apologies.

And now here Tommy is again. He decided to make L’manberg his home again just as it was blown into a crater at his feet. Rewind. It’s the same every goddamn time! Tommy raises his head to stare across the black wires at the smile. The smile stares back, tossing a stick of dynamite between his two hands. Tommy looks away, down at his hands that are cracked with dirt and blood. He’s wrong. His home isn’t gone. He is still here. He is still alive. And he is sick of losing his home. He is going to end this game and shatter that smile. He’ll make the old Wilbur proud and stop hitting the rewind button. 


End file.
